Recipe Type: All GrainYeast: WL Abbey AleYeast Starter: See BelowAdditional Yeast or Yeast Starter: See BelowBatch Size (Gallons): 5GOriginal Gravity: See BelowFinal Gravity: See BelowIBU: See BelowBoiling Time (Minutes): See BelowColor: See BelowPrimary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): See BelowAdditional Fermentation: See BelowSecondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): See Below

Brewed this up attempting to fit it into the Belgian Pale Ale BJCP Guidelines, but also to just have a light, easy drinking 'Belgian'. I love the estery and sometimes phenolic profile of Belgians provided by the yeast strain, but I don't always want to be drinking 8.5-10% Tripels, etc. Or even 6.5-7% Saison or something... (I mean, I would like to, but you get the point...) This is a Belgian "Session Ale" if you would.

Notes:
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Saaz, Tettnang, or Spalt hops could be substituted. Pay attention to the AA% of the hops - my hallarteaus I used were very low AA. Fermented in primary for about 3 weeks, needed blow-off tube in 6.5g carboy with only 5g beer! Secondary for about a week before kegging and carbonating to 2.5 volumes CO2. Feel free to bottle condition also, if you want more authenticity. I wasn't that worried since this was a pale ale as opposed to a tripel or bigger Belgian style. Beer has an estery malt profile ('typical' aroma associated with Abbey or Trappist yeasts) with herbal hints from the later addition hops in the background. Drinks smooth and somewhat fruity (repeat yeast comment), but not excessively fruity as I fermented this around 63F on average. Will duplicate in the future with the same or very close to the same recipe - will add any tweaks I make to this post.

FWIW, a Belgian Pale Ale isn't nearly as 'complex' as a tripel or something (probably why no 16B's placed in the top 3 of category 16) that some might expect, but this is a great drinking beer and complex for being only 5%ish ABV. A good example of the style, if this style is what you are looking for. A greatttt beer to get someone into Belgians, as it introduces them to the phenols, spiciness, etc. of Belgians without going too extreme, 9% ABV, etc.

Let me know if you brew it and if you make any changes. Obviously there is still some room for improvement when it was scored 41/50 (9 points to go!), but they didn't give me many pointers that I could use to improve it. Personally, I've noticed it could use a little better head retention, so maybe use .5lb of wheat? Can't think of anything else I'd do to change it at this point... maybe ferment a little warmer than I did (low-mid 60s) to get even more Belgian character from the yeast.

In addition to the flavor, I'm hoping to see good clarity from the forbidden fruit and strong foam charactaristics from the addition of crystal 10. I pulled a pound of vienna to keep the malt sweetness at about the same level as the original recipe.

For a 22 IBU total. Also, my OG was 1.058. I also added .25lb of table sugar.

So really in the end my recipe is significantly different from your original but not that far off. I'm sitting here drinking the hydrometer sample after 7 days in primary. It is extremely delicious. This is only the second time I've savored every sip of the hydrometer sample. It has the tasty yeast character of a tripel but is more quaffable. After I had racked it and fermentation was getting going I was not pleased by the overly hoppy/weird smell coming out of the blowoff jug but it is superb. I have a belgian IPA competition next year and I think I found my yeast and a baseline for the grist.

Very tasty. It has a really smooth, rich, almost creamy mouthfeel that is good but I'd sacrifice it to make the beer a little drier. Forbidden fruit is not a high flocculating yeast so I'm not sure why I wrote that before but it is a tasty yeast. I washed and saved some samples of that.

A second week in the keg (cold) has done this beer nicely. The little twinge of green beer taste in the aftertaste has subsided and it has also brightened. Obviously it is far from clear, but it is a much more luminescent orange which fades to gold as the glass narrows.

Hmm, I'm thinking of doing a Belgian Pale for my next brew (I havne't brewed a Belgian yet,) and this one has tickled my fancy. What would I need to change to make this a partial mash? I don't have the equipment to do all-grain yet, but I pulled off a pretty good stovetop partial mash for my last brew.

Put the vienna, munich, (and crystal if you're brewing it the way I did) along with however much of the belgian pale you can fit for your mini-mash, and use light extract for the rest of the gravity. If you can tell me how much grain you can mash and your approximate efficiency, I can plug it into beersmith and figure out how much extract you'll need.